Stereo Card Recolor--Rock of Ages Statue (c1870)

 

Here's another recolored stereoview. I don't have a physical copy of this one in my own collection, but I found a good scan of it on the Getty Museum website. The name associated with it on the museum website is the photographer James Cremer. It was originally in creamy black and white, like most of these old cards, but I thought it would be fun to add a touch of color. Anyway, this card has a similar theme to some I've blogged about previously, here and here, Faith personified and clinging to the cross. But instead of a painting or a girl in a costume, this is a stereo photo of a small statue. There seem to be a lot of statue stereoviews floating around eBay, and I've seen a few similar to this, but none at a price I wanted to pay. When recoloring I chose to remove the yellow shade from the statue itself and make the velvet background a deep red. I'm fascinated by how many different versions I've found of the same theme--there are a few more I haven't blogged about yet but might in the future.

Stereo Card Recolor--Pilgrim's Progress 1, Evangelist Talks with Christian (1877)

 

Here's a stereograph recolor I've been working on for quite a long time. When I first discovered, back in I think 2022, that F.G. Weller had printed a set of Pilgrim's Progress stereoviews in 1877, I couldn't find as much information about them as I wanted. I couldn't even find a complete list, since the backs of the cards advertised Weller's Allegorical Series as a whole and only mentioned that the Pilgrim's Progress set had twelve cards. So I compiled my own list of their names by combing eBay listings and museum websites and wherever else I could find snippets of information about them. Surprisingly for something that was published in 1877, the cards themselves were not actually that difficult to find, and I was able to acquire several of them on eBay for a reasonable cost. The prices vary wildly, though, so I've only got about half the set in my collection of physical stereo cards. But I've at least found digital copies of them all by now! Maddeningly, the Library of Congress had eleven out of the twelve cards but at the time had not yet digitized them. In the end I was able to get a good scan of the first card in the series from the friendly people at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, though they have updated their web page since and I can't link directly to the page that showed me they had a copy of "Evangelist talks with Christian."

Image from the Davis Museum at Wellesley College.

Here's a nice image of what the original card looks like, credited to the Davis Museum. The Library of Congress did eventually digitize their copy as well, but since it's more faded than this one and I was already in the middle of coloring it, my version is based on this scan and not the Library of Congress one. 

Here's the full list of the twelve cards:

No. 667 Evangelist talks with Christian.

No. 668 Christian starting on his Journey.

No. 669 Christian at the Wicket Gate.

No. 670 The Fire secretly sustained.

No. 671 Christian losing his burden at the Cross.

No. 672 Christian passes the Lions.

No. 673 The arming of Christian.

No. 674 Christian's combat with Apollyon.

No. 675 Vanity Fair.

No. 676 The Pillar of Salt.

No. 677 Land of Beulah

No. 678 Christian and Hopeful cross the River

These are pretty fun cards if you're familiar with the book The Pilgrim's Progress. The 3D effect on them looks very much like a pop-up book, which makes me wonder if their creation involved paper figures set up in dioramas. Of course, each view matches up to a scene in the book. 

Here's the relevant scene for this one:

Now, I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was, as he was wont, reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and, as he read, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, "What shall I do to be saved?" 

I saw also that he looked this way and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still, because, as I perceived, he could not tell which way to go. I looked then, and saw a man named Evangelist coming to him and asked, Wherefore dost thou cry? 

He answered, Sir, I perceive by the book in my hand, that I am condemned to die, and after that to come to judgement; and I find that I am not willing to do the first, nor able to do the second.

Then said Evangelist, Why not willing to die, since this life is attended with so many evils? The man answered, Because I fear that this burden is upon my back will sink me lower than the grave, and I shall fall into Tophet. And, Sir, if I be not fit to go to prison, I am not fit, I am sure, to go to judgement, and from thence to execution; and the thoughts of these things make me cry.

Then said Evangelist, If this be thy condition, why standest thou still? He answered, Because I know not whither to go. Then he gave him a parchment roll, and there was written within, Flee from the wrath to come. 

The man therefore read it, and looking upon Evangelist very carefully, said, Whither must I fly? Then said Evangelist, pointing with his finger over a very wide field, Do you see yonder wicket-gate? The man said, No. Then said the other, Do you see yonder shining light? He said, I think I do. Then said Evangelist, Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly thereto: so shalt thou see the gate; at which, when thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt do.

I think the background looks like the Slough of Despond, which is the next scene in which Christian meets Evangelist. That's why I chose a sort of murky green color for the flat part that could possibly be a wetland. The figure climbing up toward the shining light is Faithful, a neighbor of Christian's who began the journey a little earlier. I've purposely colored the light on only one half of the image, for effect. Anyway, since the Pilgrim's Progress book was (and still is) so massively popular, I'm sure the stereoviews were also popular. 

Stereo Photo--Eclipse Totality

 

I'm sure everyone knows there was a total solar eclipse last week. It was harder than I expected to make it into the path of totality--my planned ride had car trouble--but it was totally worth it (pun intended). We did have clouds, but they cleared up enough to give a great view. My phone camera wasn't really up to the task, but I tried to take a 3D photo during totality. We could see Venus and Jupiter. Four minutes feels like a really long time when the sun has just gone dark in the middle of the day! I'm posting the same photo with and without the moon edited darker in Photoshop, since the light shining around the edges confused the camera focus and washed it out. The edited photo looks more like it did in real life. It's as close as I could get to bringing totality home to show my friends and family members who weren't able to travel there. 

Life of Christ Stereo Cards--The Last Supper and the Appearance to Mary Magdalene

 

Happy Easter! Today I thought it would be fun share a few more of the Life of Christ stereograph cards from my collection. I've already shown the full set of twenty-four that were printed in color, but it's interesting to see the difference between those and the hand-colored ones. Those twenty-four pictures can be found in both versions (as well as in black and white), but there are also a number of pictures that don't seem to have been reprinted in color. The hand coloring is a bit garish to the modern eye, but some of the scenes are quite interesting. Among these are cards showing Jesus washing the disciples' feet, the Last Supper, and the post-resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene. It is easier to tell on the hand-colored cards that they were originally photographed from beautifully detailed dioramas. Unfortunately, they also seem to fade more easily. These have been color-corrected to be less yellow, but there's nothing I can do for the fading. They do look better in 3D, though.

Life of Christ Stereo Cards--Between Christmas and Easter

 

Since it's almost Easter, I thought it would be a good time to share the last three of the twenty-four colorful Life of Christ stereograph cards I posted a while ago. These are the ones that didn't fit easily into either an Easter or a Christmas post. I used Photoshop to remove a couple of blotches that I found distracting, but otherwise these didn't need a lot of alteration. One shows Jesus at age twelve, talking to the teachers in the temple, and the other two show the wedding at Cana and the Sermon on the Mount. Earlier posts about this set are related to Christmas, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3), and Easter. These cards appear to have been generally sold in a set of twenty-five (the box advertises twenty-five, and many different-themed sets of twenty-five cards were available in identical boxes) but the twenty-fifth card could be any of a fairly wide variety with some relevance to Jesus or the holy land. I think that means that these twenty-four were a proper set, but an additional card was added to give the original purchasers their money's worth; that would be easier than printing separate boxes for a set with one less card. These same views can also be found in black and white, sometimes colored by hand. There are actually several more scenes in the black and white set that I wish had been printed in color!

How to View Stereo Cards in 3D

A friend asked me to explain on my blog how I view all these 3D pictures, so here is a post about that. First, here's a picture of my real, old-fashioned stereoscope. This particular one is marked on the bottom that it's a "Saturn" Scope, with patent dates of October 15, 1895 and February 1, 1896. It's a version of the Holmes stereoscope, which was invented in 1861 by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. and deliberately not patented. Mine is missing a little piece of wood at the end of the part that divides the two views, so I've attached a bit of paperboard so each eye doesn't see the edge of the opposite view. Paper stereograph cards--the one shown here is the original of the last recolor I blogged about--sit in a holder that slides backward and forward to focus. Unfortunately it's easy to slide it all the way off, and therefore a lot of stereoscopes end up for sale without it. I have a second stereoscope that came in an eBay lot with this one, but it's missing both the card holder and the handle. I haven't yet tried to restore that one, beyond popping the glass lenses back in after they got knocked out during shipping. 

Anyway, the general idea is that if you have two pictures taken from about as far apart as the distance between our eyes, you can show each picture to the correct eye and your brain will register the combination as a 3D object instead of a flat one. The first stereoscope, designed by Charles Wheaton in 1838, was a complicated affair involving mirrors and hand-drawn images. With the development of photography and the invention of the cheaper Holmes stereoscope, though, the technique became an extremely popular form of home entertainment. So many paper stereo cards were produced that a large number survived and are still available today. Prices vary wildly, and if you want something specific you might be in for a long search, but as antiques go they're quite accessible.

 

It's not always convenient to get out a fragile, antique device, and the stereoscope needs good lighting. So more often I use this handy little modern gadget to view digital copies on my smartphone. Any headset compatible with the unfortunately discontinued Google Cardboard works, but I prefer this minimalist version I got on Amazon for $6.99. Here's a link to it; it's not an affiliate link or anything, I just haven't found anything cheaper or more effective. The product description doesn't make a lot of sense, but judging from the reviews I'm not the only one who likes it for viewing stereographs. To use it, just load the picture on a phone in landscape mode (turn on auto rotate) and clip the viewer right on the line between the two sides. Hold it by the phone and not by the viewer so as not to knock it out of alignment, and look into the lenses as if they were a pair of binoculars. Since this model has open sides, it's easy to swipe from one picture to the next. You can also zoom in and out to focus if necessary. And it folds up to about the size of your palm, so it's portable, too. I've had more than enough fun out of mine to justify the price, so I definitely recommend getting one of your own. 

 

Stereo Card Recolor--Simply to Thy Cross I Cling (1900)

 

I found this lovely stereograph card on eBay a while ago, and I colored it in Photoshop but didn't post it right away because it was so tricky to sort out the boundary between the painted backdrop and the girl's hair. Finally I decided to check it over it one more time and then go ahead and share, so here it is. I really like this card and have not seen it anywhere else.

This stereograph has a strong resemblance to one I blogged about earlier, here, ultimately based on a painting by Johannes Adam Simon Oertel. It seems to have been a popular design to copy; several other companies put their own spin on it. I've collected a few of them and find it fascinating just how much variety there is even when they're clearly copying each other. This particular version was published in 1900 by Griffith & Griffith. Since it's a photo and not a painting, the 3D effect is much more convincing than in the 1896 card. The cross is not made of rock--it appears to be cloth-draped wood--but the title is still a line from the song "Rock of Ages." The girl is younger than in many other portrayals; since she's understood to be a personification of Christian faith, I suppose that makes this one childlike Faith.

Stereo Photos--Orange Daylily

 

I took these photos several months ago, but I just found them on my phone and put them together in 3D. I was very pleased at how well they turned out, too, especially since it was my kids' favorite flower that my husband accidentally cut down with a weed eater not long after I photographed it. They were all happy to see that I managed to save these pictures of it.

Stereo Photo--Venus Flytrap

My family bought a little Venus flytrap plant at Sprout's this week! My kids named it Speed Eater Buzz, or Buzz for short. Obviously I couldn't resist making a 3D picture of it, and that turned out pretty well, so I decided to share it. To view it in 3D, load this picture in landscape mode on a smartphone and put the phone in any device that would work with Google Cardboard (I do miss Google Cardboard). We're all enjoying our new "pet," though I have to dissuade the kids from watering it too frequently. It's even caught a couple of flies by now. 

Life of Christ Stereo Cards--Christmas

Merry Christmas! Here are some stereo cards from the same set as the ones I posted around Easter. Other cards from this set can be found here (Palm Sunday), here (Maundy Thursday), here (Good Friday Part 1), here (Good Friday Part 2), here (Good Friday Part 3), and here (Easter). These are the Christmas ones, called "The Shepherd's Adoration," "The Adoration of the Wise Men," and "The Flight Into Egypt." I really love these. I framed them to view well in my Google Cardboard viewer and touched up a couple of scratches on the stable wall in the first picture, but they were already so beautiful that I didn't do much to them in Photoshop. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! 

Stereo Photos--Flower in the Street

While I was out walking yesterday I saw this little plant growing through a crack in the street, and I thought it would make a fun 3D photograph. There are two views of it here, one that shows more of the surroundings and another that is a closeup. They should be viewable on any smartphone in a Google Cardboard or equivalent viewer.

 

Life of Christ Stereo Cards--The Resurrection and The Ascension

 

Happy Easter! The Resurrection stereo card is my favorite from this set. I did Photoshop a few funny orange specks off it before posting, but it would have been fine as it was. Oh, and I'm throwing in the Ascension card with it because, while I'm sure there is a liturgical day for that, too, I don't think I'll remember to post it at the correct time. Other cards I've shared from this set can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

Life of Christ Stereo Cards--Good Friday Part 3

These are the last three stereo cards I have to share for Good Friday, corresponding to Stations of the Cross numbers twelve through fourteen. Earlier cards in this set are are here, here, here, and here. The last of these cards actually needed a bit of repair work done in Photoshop--there was a distracting bright yellow streak across the middle of the rock ceiling. I think it edited out nicely enough for 3D viewing, though. And that's all until Sunday!

Life of Christ Stereo Cards--Good Friday Part 2

 

Here are some more stereo cards for Good Friday. These correspond to Stations of the Cross seven through eleven. Earlier cards in the same set can be found here, here, and here. 

Life of Christ Stereo Cards--Good Friday Part 1

A disproportionate number of the cards from the colorful twenty-four-card Life of Christ set I found are related to Good Friday. The numbers printed on the cards themselves don't make much sense to me, so I numbered them in chronological order from the Nativity to the Ascension, with the Stations of the Cross in their traditional order inside that. But I thought it might be hard for some internet connections to load all fourteen of those in a single post, so I decided to split them up. The first one was actually posted yesterday, so these five cards correspond to stations two through six. Earlier cards from this set can be found here and here. 

Life of Christ Stereo Cards--Judas Betraying Christ and Jesus Condemned to Death

 

Since today is Maundy Thursday, I'm sharing a couple more of the stereo cards from this set. The second one is technically more appropriate to the early morning of Good Friday, but since there are plenty of Good Friday cards I thought I'd put this one here. These were also in good shape and only needed to be given a frame in Photoshop. 

Here is a link to the card I posted earlier, for Palm Sunday.

Life of Christ Stereo Cards--Jesus Entering Jerusalem

Since today is Palm Sunday, I thought it would be an appropriate time to share this stereoscope card. I bought a whole set of these on eBay--twenty-four in all--and while mine are not dated, I have seen otherwise identical cards with a 1925 copyright date. This particular card was in lovely shape, so all I needed to do in Photoshop was add a frame to get it ready for my Google Cardboard viewer.

Stereo Card Recolor--Rock of Ages: The Rescue (1896)

 

Here's the other 1896 stereo card I bought on eBay along with The Resurrection. It's titled "Rock of Ages--The Rescue," and I love its dramatic allegory. It was originally in sepia, of course, but I thought the ocean scene would be beautiful in color. Trying to match both sides of the water splashes was really tricky, but eventually I got them close enough for 3D viewing. I also added some blank space to the edges to help my Google Cardboard viewer focus on it correctly.

I think this card was intended to be part of a set with two other cards called "Rock of Ages--The Wreck" and "Rock of Ages--The Ascension," but it's hard to find specific information. There are at least two versions of each card; I like this 1896 one better than the 1875 version I found a scan of here. Actually, when I tried to look these up I found a dizzying variety of related artwork--everything from paintings to tattoos to a music album cover, dated any time between the late 1860s and, well, right now. There is an interesting explanation of the original painting's history here, on what appears to be a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan site. 

Stereo Card Recolor--The Resurrection (1896)

 

I bought a couple of antique stereograph cards on eBay the other day, and since they were sepia-toned I thought it would be fun to try recoloring them. This card is titled "The Resurrection" and was originally published in 1896. Since it has a lot of details in the background, I decided to leave most of that sepia and only decorate the central figure and the palm branches at the top. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. It's better in 3D, of course; I view these on my smartphone using a Google Cardboard headset. It's not necessary to use a phone that will actually run Google Cardboard, either--all the phone needs to be capable of is showing a picture full screen and in landscape mode. Theoretically it should also be possible to print this out at the correct size and view it in an old-fashioned stereoscope, but since I don't own a real stereoscope I have not tried that.